Etymology

six

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Today it means: A numerical value equal to 6; the number following five and preceding seven. This number of dots: (••••••). Full definition →

Middle English six ← Old English six ← Proto-West Germanic *sehs
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*swéḱs
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*sehs
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*sehs
  4. Old English · inherited fromsix
  5. Middle English · inherited fromsix
  6. English todaysix

PIE word *swéḱs From Middle English six, from Old English six, from Proto-West Germanic *sehs, from Proto-Germanic *sehs, from Proto-Indo-European *swéḱs. Compare West Frisian seis, Dutch zes, Low German söss, sess, German sechs, Norwegian and Danish seks, also Latin sex, Ancient Greek ἕξ (héx), Sanskrit षष् (ṣaṣ). Doublet of sice. Toilet sense predates military usage.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.